1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus and a printing control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing control apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-272796 causes a two-dimensional barcode to be embedded and printed on each of all four corners or any one corner of a print product, so that the print product with the embedded barcode is scanned as an original document, and the embedded information is read. The printing control apparatus restricts an image output operation such as a copy operation in response to the embedded information, or extracts tracking information from the embedded information. For example, the tracking information includes information of a user who executed an output operation, and information of execution date and time of the output operation.
According to such a printing control apparatus, the two-dimensional barcode is printed in a specific position at an end of a recording sheet, the specific position being determined beforehand. Such printing is expected to prevent the two-dimensional barcode from being overlapped on document information provided as original contents of the print document, and to enhance a barcode recognition rate by omitting time to search the entire document for a barcode at the time of reading.
For example, a Business Machine Linkage Service (BMLinkS) (trademark) information marking standard specification version 1.0.0 defines a specification called a BMLinkS (trademark). In the BMLinkS (trademark) information marking standard specification version 1.0.0, a print position is strictly defined as “being arranged in any one of the four corners within 30 mm from respective sheet edge. ABM-IM mark should be written from a position at a distance of 10 mm from the edge.
Since the two-dimensional barcode is printed in the predetermined position at the end of the recording sheet, the advantages mentioned above are expected. However, there are cases where an end of a recording sheet is cut by trimming process after printing to cause missing barcode.
Particularly, when an image is printed centered on a recording sheet larger than a desired recording size, four sides of the recording sheet are usually cut in post-processing to provide a function of printing an image up to an end of a recording sheet such as full bleeding. If a two-dimensional barcode image goes missing due to cutting of an end of a recording sheet, the two-dimensional barcode is unlikely to be recognized when reading the recording sheet is performed. Moreover, even if the two-dimensional barcode does not go missing, time consumed after reading of a recording sheet before recognition of the two-dimensional barcode is likely to increase due to a change in a distance from an edge of the recording sheet to the two-dimensional barcode by cutting the recording sheet.